Rincon Light

This route is for those of you who lead at 5.9 to 10a level and always wondered what's on top of the Rincon crag.

P1: climb the same as for the first pitch of

Rincon

(5.9+, G).

P2: climb the same as for the second pitch of

Rincon

(5.9-, G). Pitch 1 and 2 can be combined into one stellar long pitch.

P3: from the two-pin and bolt anchor on

Rincon

, traverse left around the arete, then diagonal up left to join, and complete the third pitch of

Center Route

to a large ledge with a house-sized boulder (5.8, PG). This pitch is graded 5.8 R in Levin's guidebook, but evaluate the holds in the broken section, and you'll find plentiful of stable holds and good gear placements.

P4: step around the house-sized boulder, and climb pitch 4 of

Rincon

(in Rossiter's guidebook). This is a separate pitch in Levin's guidebook called Rincon Direct Finish. If you're shorter than 5'9", you might have trouble clipping the bolt (from standing on top of the boulder) mentioned in both guidebooks. Bring your small offset RPs for this pitch, otherwise you'll have a 25 foot runout at the top of the slab (5.9-, PG-13).

At the top of the slab, you have a few options:

A) with a 60m rope, you can step left about 8 feet, and continue up a corner system (about 5.6?), or you can step right 5 feet, and pick up a left-facing corner (also 5.6ish and a little cleaner). After topping out, there will be a 100 foot 3rd Class downhill and another 100 feet through looseness, and you're at the base of

Gambit

.

B) if you're not a fan of long pitches, you can head over to a belay ledge on the left with a tree. If you prefer to skip the easy finish, you can walk off to the left (north), which brings you down to the walk-off for the

Over the Hill

area.

Some smallish RPs for pitch 4 (I was very happy to have a red offset DMM peenut here, which I think is about the same as a #2 or #3 offset RP).